What, How, Why? An Outline of the State’s Attitude Towards Agriculture and Farmers in Early Yugoslav Socialism, 1945–1953 (With an Emphasis on Slovenia)

Abstract

In this review article, the author presents the crucial factors regarding the legal provisions that shaped agricultural policy in early socialism in Yugoslavia (1945–1953). In doing so, he focuses on the developments in agriculture in Slovenia. The article presents the agrarian question (the issue of land and its ownership) and the agricultural question (the attitude of the authorities towards peasants as a social and professional group). It outlines the agrarian reform in Slovenia (1945–1948), its impact (consequences), and the intervention of the authorities in agriculture to provide for the population. These interventions included the collectivisation of agriculture based on the model of the Soviet Union’s kolkhozes. The authorities’ attitude towards agriculture included pragmatic reasons (supplying the population) as well as political and ideological motives.